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ADDRESS 



OF 



Gov. Thos. E. Kilby 



AT THE 



CITIZENS EDUCATIONAL 
CONFERENCE 




HELD IN BIRMINGHAM 
APRIL 13. 1922 



BROWN PRINTING CO. MONTCOMERY. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGAS 
RECEIVED 

JUL151922 

DOCUMENTS G.V.Ji .... 






Address of Governor Thos. E. Kilby at the 

Citizens Educational Conference, Held 

in Birmingham, April 13, 1922 



x 



SUPPOSE everyone understands that this is 
not a meeting of educators, teachers and 
school people generally, but that it is a con- 
ference of citizens who are especially inter- 
ested in the cause of education. It is for the 
purpose of discussing and considering the educa- 
tional situation and for the promotion of means and 
measures calculated to improve it. As stated in the 
call for the meeting, the improvement of schools and 
other educational agencies is not alone or princi- 
pally the concern of teachers and professional edu- 
cators. It is primarily and principally the concern 
of the people who have established the schools, who 
pay for them and who use them for the education 
of their children and for the development of their 
state. The people as a whole must decide directly 
or through their representatives how much and 
what kind of education they want to give the boys 
and girls of the* State, through what agencies such 
education shall' be provided, how efficient these 
agencies shall be and how much money shall be ap- 
propriated for the. purpose a'nd how that money 
shall be obtained. Of course, among- the~ citizens 
called together for the consideration of these mat- 
ters there are quite naturally many teachers, educa- 
tors and school authorities, but their professional 
status will for the time being be subordinated or 
subjected to their broader status or capacity as citi- 
zens of Alabama. 

Now, the people of Alabama have, through their 
chosen representatives, reached a decision on the 
question of a school system, and it is for you to rat- 
ify and support it if it meets with your approval. 
One of the first things the Legislature of 1919 did, 
following a recommendation in my first annual 
message to that body, w T as to provide for a State 
Education Commission charged with the duty of 
making a scientific study of the public school sys- 
tem of Alabama and reporting its findings with rec- 
ommendations. A commission was appointed con- 
sisting of men of intelligence, of vision, of high 
character, of sound business judgment and of in- 
3 



tense patriotism. They summoned to their aid thr ! 
best professional talent in the nation, experts in th< 
several departments of educational work, and place' 
them under the supervision of the United State. 
Bureau of Education. No pains or expense wen 
spared in going to the bottom of things and wha 
the investigators learned was embraced in a compre 
hensive report containing the history of educatioi 
in Alabama, the merits and demerits of the systen 
in vogue, comparisons with the work in other states 
together with recommendations for improvement o. 
our methods. The Commission, using the report o 
the expert investigators as a basis, submitted it:, 
report with recommendations and bills were pre 
pared embodying these recommendations and sub 
mitted to the Legislature at the adjourned sessioi 
in 1919. Those bills were enacted and now forn 
what is known as the Alabama School Code, whicl 
authorities in Alabama pronounce to be as nearly 
perfect as is possible under the restrictions and inhi 
bitions of our State Constitution. The estimate 
placed upon it abroad is indicated by the fact that 
it is taught as a text book in some of the great uni- 
versities of the country. 

It placed Alabama, in theory, in the front rank. 

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I say that the 
main question has been answered by the people act- 
ing through their representatives. 

To the citizens who possess technical and profes- 
sional knowledge I leave the discussion of the pro- 
fessional and pedagogical aspects of the subject, but 
there is one phase of the matter that I wish to say 
just a word about, the money side. It is money that 
makes the wheels go around. You may erect the 
most perfectly designed and the most carefully 
constructed piece of machinery ever conceived of 
and if you do not provide fuel to propel it and oil to 
keep its bearings lubricated the wheels will not go 
around very long and soon the beautiful machine 
will be fit only for the scrap pile. 

Now while the Legislature was building this edu- 
cational machinery it did not overlook the means of 
propelling it and keeping it oiled. A companion 
machine was built, a machine designed to equal- 
ize the assessment of property for taxation as a 
means of securing the fuel and the oil. A trial of 
two years has demonstrated that it is workable and 
efficient. A good start toward equalization has 
been made. In 1918 the average of assessment of 
property of the State was about 26% of its reason- 
able cash value. The assessment for 1920 and 1921 



was about 35%. The assessment for 1922 will be 
about the same, or perhaps a little more, owing to 
decreased values. Only a good beginning has been 
made, but something approaching equalization is 
possible under the present law, and if it is made by 
raising the assessment of property now notoriously 
under-assessed to a point equal to the higher as- 
sessments there will be an abundance of funds to 
support the school system in all its parts and no 
property owner will be made to suffer an injustice. 

But, I am sorry to say, the taxing machinery has 
its enemies. A temporary disturbance of business 
has thrown many men off their feet. Of course we 
all know that there has been financial distress 
among the people, but it has not been caused by 
high state tax bills. Federal taxes have been high 
and burdensome, but state taxes are the least of our 
burdens. If it were not so there would have been a 
stop to the voting of three-mill county and district 
levies. They have been adopted practically in all 
the counties and in many districts, many elections 
being held since the depression set in and more are 
proposed. Now mark this prediction. If wise coun- 
sels do not prevail in the next Legislature the whole 
structure so wisely prepared by the last Legislature 
will crumble and fall or be so impaired that it will 
fail of its object. And mark further! — The man 
who destroys the means of raising funds for educa- 
tion is an enemy to education, prate he ever so 
loudly of his love for the barefoot boys and girls 
and of his reverence for the little red school house 
on the hill! The cry of the demagogue is a familiar 
sound in Alabama, "Reduction of taxation," when 
taxes are far below the amount required by law — 
"economy" — false economy, the kind that saves at 
the spigot and wastes at the bung. "Stop waste 
and extravagance" — which do not exist — "abolish 
useless offices" — when there are none such — these 
have ever been the stock in trade of the demagogue 
and they perhaps always will be, but, my friends, it 
is a cry that contains a positive and serious menace 
to the welfare of Alabama and particularly to her 
educational interests and to the unfortunate and 
helpless wards of the State. 

The assault upon the tax system will be directed 
toward the method of assessing property. In my 
judgment, those charged with the administration of 
the laws of the State will, when the responsibility 
rests upon their shoulders, realize the danger to the 
treasury involved in the proposal to destroy the 
assessment machinery and do their best to stay the 
5 



hand of the destroyer, but it may be too late. To, 
go back to the old system of assessment by local' 
assessors would mean the destruction of all progress 
in education for the fuel and the lubricant for your 
machinery would be found wanting. Local assess- 
ment of property means government by voluntary 
contribution! Government by voluntary contribu- 
tion means precious little public education. Will 
you stand for it? Whether the effort is successful 
or not depends largely upon the friends of education. 
If the friends of education sit idly by and allow the 
propaganda against adequate taxation to take hold 
of the minds of the senators and representatives in 
the next Legislature it will be a sad and solemn day 
for education in Alabama. 

Not only for education, but for the development 
of our agricultural and industrial interests. Ala- 
bama is a wonderful state — potentially. Providence 
has been kind to us. Nature was lavish in her leg- 
acy of resources. We are rich in fertile lands, in an 
unsurpassed climate, in minerals, in timber, in navi- 
gable streams and water powers, in everything 
necessary to the making of a great state. On no 
spot of this earth are the raw materials for manu- 
facture so well assorted, so set apart, side by side, 
ready for immediate and convenient use as they are 
in this district of Alabama. It is as though the Cre- 
ator had chosen this section of His universe for a 
test or demonstration of what the brain and the 
hand of man might accomplish in the working of 
His materials, selected by Him and set apart by Him 
for the purpose. 

But what avails this rich and rare array of re- 
sources if they are not to be fully developed? And 
fully developed they never will be except through 
the scientific knowledge and technical skill of our 
own people — our own boys and girls of today who 
will be the men and the women and the builders of 
tomorrow. The agricultural and industrial progress 
of the State depends upon how we educate these 
boys and girls. The costliest possession of any state 
is its ignorance; we learn this from our own expe- 
rience. The best paying investment of any state is 
education and knowledge; we learn that from the 
experience of others. The states that invested in 
education have reaped rich returns from the invest- 
ment and they are continuing and multiplying the 
investment. 

Compared with what other states have done Ala- 
bama makes a pitiful showing, but we are improv- 
ing on cur own record. Our system and methods 
6 



have been wonderfully improved as the result of the 
work of the Education Commission to which I have 
referred. Measured in dollars, we have made prog- 
ress, as this memorandum indicates. 

Expended by the State for all educational pur- 
poses from 1903 to 1921, by quadrenniums: 

1903-1906 $ 5,254,000 

19°7-1910 9,309,000 

1911-1914 11,798,000 

1915-1918 13,287,000 

1919-1922* 19,000,000 

^'Expenditures for 1922 estimated. 

You will observe that during the present quad- 
rennium we are spending 19 million against 5*/4 
million in 1903 to 1906, nearly 4 times as much. 
More than double what we spent in the four years 
1907-1910 and over 50 '£ more than in each of the 
last two 4-year periods. And that is not half 
enough! 

Now, the question is, shall we maintain the pres- 
ent progress, increase it cr decrease it? The an- 
swer lies in what you are going to do with your 
system of taxation. There is no standing still. We 
will go forward or backward. If you follow those 
who preach "government by voluntary contribution" 
you will go backward with a rush. The alternative 
is to see that your legislators stand by the schools, 
stand by all that makes for the agricultural and 
industrial progress and give to Alabama her right- 
ful place among the sisterhood of states — and let the 
demagogues go hang! 

I hope this conference will not be satisfied with 
making and hearing speeches and passing mild, 
sugar-coated resolutions. I hope you will send forth 
a clarion call to all friends of education, to all pa- 
triotic citizens of the State, such a call as will 
arouse them to a sense of the danger that lies ahead 
and to a full realization of their duty to education 
in Alabama, from the University and Auburn down 
to the smallest unit of the rural school system. If 
you do so, and follow it up, this conference will 
mark a red letter day in our history and start a new 
era for education, for progress and for prosperity 
of the State and its people. 



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